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Real ads in a virtual world

Rebang has a posting about an MMOG which is offering space for real advertisers in its virtual magazine.

Eve Online is a new one on me. Its about five empires in a cluster of stars far from earth. Its published by CCP games, based in Reykjavik, and claims to be “host to the largest virtual universe in the world” and its website says:”Massively multiplayer games are virtual realities. They are about creating experiences unattainable in any other form of media. A virtual reality is about true human interaction and true human emotions in a living and evolving world. It is CCPâ€™s belief that massively multiplayer games are the biggest revolution in computer gaming history and CCP is dedicated to make the dream of a true virtual reality come into being”.

In October it claimed to have passed the 17,000 peak concurrent user record to have more than 70,000 active subscribers. (To support these it has a 64-Gigabyte RamSan-400 solid state disk. It uses Microsoft Windows SQL Server.) I see that Second Life claims a Population (presumably this means active subscribers) of 88,127 and, at the moment, 2083 users inworld (which I assume means concurrent users.)

Rebangs posting is yet anther example of the way that boundaries between simualtion and real life are blurring.